Replacing sky router

We have the ancient sagem f@st 2504 router with sky unlimited broadband which is showing its age now (had it for 5-6 years). I want to replace it with i guess the Sky hub which seems to be in plentiful supply on ebay (i think Sky charge £70 but i could be wrong). My questions are is it just a straight swap? Is it wise buying off ebay in terms of security, am i leaving myself open with a router from an unknown source? Anything else i need to be wary of?

The (very) old sky routers used to have the password embedded in the firmware. It was possible to “extract” the password and thereby use your own router.

I don’t know if this is still the case but before pushing the button on ebay i suggest a good google to see if you are still tied to the router supplied by sky.

Decode your sky username and password from your sagem router using this page here: Sky password extractor

Buy a decent adsl modem router from your electronics store of choice. I like TP Link kit, but most mid-range home office level kit will be a lot better than the standard sky box of crap. Enter details taken from above. Bingo!

Unplug it, ring Sky and tell them it’s broken and you want a new one.

I replaced my sky hub as that’s a pile of rubbish as well.

They are right that Sky use a MER auth setup to authenticate you on to the line but it’s easy enough to get that information out and then just make sure what ever router you replace it with supports that as a DHCP option.

I’m using an ASUS dark knight router with Merlin firmware to support it.

Do sky routers have an infinite warranty? I guess that might be an option but i have no doubt it wont be free.

I will give google a try but last time i did it i nearly lost the will to live trying to find some definitive.

Somouk whats wrong with the sky hub? My sagem router works ok but the wifi is a bit slow as it doesnt run any of the new wifi protocols but the range is ok.

Do sky routers have an infinite warranty? I guess that might be an option but i have no doubt it wont be free.

I’d wager it’d be free if you threatened to change providers.

I’d wager it’d be free if you threatened to change providers.

Mine was free when I was negotiating the price I wanted to pay for Sky.

Yeah. Why would you pay for a service you couldn’t receive due to a router fault?

“Hi, I’d like a new router please.”

“Certainly, that’ll be £70.”

“I’m not paying £70, I’ll have a PAC number instead.”

“Your router’s on its way, sir.”

Cougar i have tried this policy before and Sky were more than happy for me to go. I have been with them for 10 years but it seems i am a relatively low spender for them (£52 per month) and so not bothered about trying to retain my custom.

Somouk whats wrong with the sky hub? My sagem router works ok but the wifi is a bit slow as it doesnt run any of the new wifi protocols but the range is ok.

Mine suffered with slow wifi speeds and poor wifi range, the ports on the one I had are 100 Mb and not Gigabit which was slowing down my internal wired network and it didn’t support some of the more advanced stuff I wanted to do.

There has been a revision to the router since then but I’ve never tested one, never had an issue with the ASUS I replaced it with so no need to go back.